Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Despite the turmoil he has met in the legislative assembly over the last couple weeks regarding an extra-marital affair, Premier Floyd Roland was optimistic about his - and the territory's - future in his year-end address on Friday.

Roland spoke about the need to put pressure on the federal government and regulatory agencies to movement on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. He said in the face of tough and uncertain economic times nationally, investments in projects like the pipeline would help Canada's global economic position overall.

"When you look at the numbers nationally, and we talk about key infrastructure for a country, when you talk about $86 billion estimated being put into the national economy because of that project, it makes absolute sense if we continue," he said.

"Every nut or bolt we turn in the Northwest Territories was manufactured in some other jurisdiction," he said.

"That is the case that we would put forward to Ottawa."

He said he just had a call with the western premiers about what projects to push and how to approach the upcoming first minister's meeting in January, and a pending meeting with federal Environment Minister John Baird.

"Right now, the federal government has been starting to hold meetings with the jurisdictions about advancing infrastructure," he said.

He said the Joint Review Panel's announcement to push back the release of its report on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline until December 2009 has caused much grief in some business sectors.

While he said it would not be wise to pull the report, he said government, companies and people need to apply pressure to bring the report to a conclusion.

Roland said devolution and resource revenue sharing negotiations have not moved along as quickly as he would have hoped, adding the government has met with regional aboriginal groups for discussions.

He also said the territory would look at borrowing money and incurring debt in turbulent economic times to fund key infrastructure projects, which he said would have a long-term benefit for the territory. However, he wanted to maintain a surplus on the operations side of the budget.

"If we start to dip into a deficit on the (operations and maintenance) side, then we start to lose capacity on the capital, infrastructure side," he said.

He foreshadowed Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger's February budget, which would include reductions that were announced last year, as the government looks to keep curbing expenses.

"When Minister Miltenberger delivers his next budget in February, there are some difficult choices to be made on how to refocus our resources," he said.

Two weeks ago, Miltenberger said 65 positions in the public service could be cut in the upcoming budget, but he hoped to redistribute employees or cut vacant positions to minimize job losses.

Roland said because the GNWT chose to look at how to cut its spending last budget, the government "will avoid major shifts and upheaval that some other jurisdictions in Canada will face."

"We made some tough choices earlier," said Roland.

"Hopefully with those steps, it has given us a little more flexibility than we would have had had we continued on status quo."